On the pulse


Cancerkin's News Update.....

Cancerkin theatre tickets on sale now…

Tickets are now on sale for Cancerkin’s special evening at the theatre on 31st October 2011. To celebrate and promote the important message of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, Cancerkin will be hosting a performance of a new play ‘The Last of The Duchess’ at the Hampstead Theatre. The play focuses on the final days of the controversial Duchess of Windsor, Wallis Simpson, spent in her household in Versailles and features an all star cast including Sheila Hancock and Anna Chancellor. Written by Nicholas Wright and directed by Richard Eyre, the play is a world premier and we hope you will join us for an unforgettable evening!

To buy tickets at £40 each, you can call Laura on 020 7830 2323 or you can complete a ticket form, which you will shortly receive in the post or that can be downloaded from our website. This needs to be completed and returned with your payment to the Cancerkin Centre. Seats are limited so book early to avoid disappointment! All funds raised from the performance will help us support more women affected by breast cancer.

If you are interested in helping out with organising the event, we are currently looking for volunteers to help stuff envelopes in the next few weeks. If you are available, please contact Laura on 0207 830 2323 or l.smith@cancerkin.org.uk.. Tea and biscuits will be provided!

Hyde Park Walk announcement!

This week we passed the £30,000 mark in funds raised for the Hyde Park Walk. Thank you so much and well done everybody! Just a reminder that the deadline for sponsorship monies to be received by the Cancerkin office is Monday 15th August. Please remember to make all cheques payable to Cancerkin and avoid sending cash in the post. Please contact Laura on l.smith@cancerkin.org.uk if you have any queries.

Internships at Cancerkin…

Would you like to work at Cancerkin? We are recruiting an East London Project Intern and an Events, Fundraising and Promotions Intern to join our team for three months in September. To read more detailed descriptions of the roles, please visit our website. To apply, please send a covering letter, clearly stating why you would like the internship and what you think you can bring to the role, plus an up-to-date CV. For the Events, Fundraising and Promotions Internship, please apply to Laura Smith at l.smith@cancerkin.org.uk. For the East London Project Internship, please apply to Asini Wijewardane on a.wijewardane@cancerkin.org.uk. The deadline for applications is 15th August 2011.

In the News.....

Potential new treatment for Herceptin resistant tumours

Of the 48,000 women diagnosed with breast cancer in the UK each year, around a quarter will have quick-growing HER2-positive tumours. Such tumours have a large number of receptors to a particular protein which triggers their fast growth. Whilst women with HER2 positive breast cancer previously had limited treatment options, the development of the cancer drug Herceptin (trastuzumab) over the last decade has benefited many patients with this kind of cancer. The drug works to stop cancer cells dividing and growing but over time some women may develop a resistance to the treatment.

Research conducted at the National Cancer Institute in Philadelphia in the US has found that a newly developed protein may help these patients. In lab trials conducted on mice, scientists have found that Affitoxin may be effective in destroying HER2-positive tumours that have stopped responding to Herceptin. Affitoxin kills cancer cells by delivering a bacterial toxin to them. Researchers now hope that the drug will soon be tested on patients in clinical trials and that it will then become available commercially.

Dr Jacek Capala, who worked on the study, said: “Herceptin has revolutionized the treatment of patients with HER2-positive breast cancer, but a significant number of tumours acquire resistance to the drug. Affitoxin could offer another therapeutic option for those patients whose tumours no longer respond to Herceptin.” Delyth Morgan, chief executive of Breast Cancer Campaign, said “If Affitoxin realises its potential as a new treatment for HER2-positive breast cancer, it may overcome this issue of resistance and become an important alternative treatment. These promising results indicate a clinical trial is urgently needed to move this drug closer to patient use.”

To read more, please click here..

New research into benefits of tamoxifen...

In March, On the pulse reported on the first major study into the long-term effects of Tamoxifen, which confirmed that breast cancer is less likely to come back in those that take the drug for five years. The drug is frequently prescribed to women with oestrogen-receptor (ER) positive breast cancer to target any cancer cells missed by surgery and to prevent recurrence. The results of further research into the drug, published online this week in a report by the Early Breast Cancer Trialists’ Collaborative Group, suggest that women who take the treatment for five years after their surgery can boost the long-term chances of surviving the disease.

Researchers compared information taken from 20 clinical trials involving patients with early breast cancer who took tamoxifen everyday for five years with information about those who did not. They found that those who did take the drug had a lower chance of dying from the disease for at least ten years after treatment began. Over the 15 years after beginning treatment, the risk of dying from breast cancer was reduced by around a third.

Professor Jack Cuzick a Cancer Research UK epidemiologist, said of the study: "This research provides further evidence that taking tamoxifen for five years increases the chance of surviving breast cancer, with the benefits lasting long after women have finished their course of treatment. Although tamoxifen is considered one of the most important drugs in the history of breast cancer treatment, it is now largely being replaced by a new generation of breast cancer drugs called aromatase inhibitors, which have been shown to be even more effective at preventing breast cancer returning with fewer side effects."

To read more about the study, please click here.

Laura Smith
29 July 2011